All of it as you calculate both officially declare the result all 6 had elevated positions within parliament and were urged to prevent the vote taking place 8 former Catalan ministers are already in prison facing similar allegations including rebellion where they haven't been charged under such Catalan president's call it puts the ball is still in self-imposed exile in Belgium fighting a Spanish request for his extradition police in Turkey say they've detained $101.00 suspected Islamic state militants in a major anti terror operation more than 1500 officers took part in the raids across the capital Ankara Well news from the b.b.c. . Zimbabwe's main airport has been renamed Robert Gabriel Mugabe airport in honor of the country's 93 year old president state media said this was to mark Mr Mugabe's contribution to black empowerment especially by redistributing white farmers land there's tension in Zimbabwe about who would succeed Mr Mugabe who's been in power since 1980. The film company Sony Pictures is to cut actor Kevin Spacey out of the completed but not yet released film all the money in the world after a string of allegations of sexual harassment against the actor Spacey had played the part of the u.s. Millionaire John Paul Getty but now all his scenes will be shot again with actor Christopher Plummer in the role. Officials in the Indian capital Delhi say they're introducing emergency measures to reduce traffic as toxic smog engulfed the region for a 3rd day earlier one doctor said the pollution levels were equivalent to smoking 50 cigarettes a day Juma giving report next week drivers in Delhi can only use vehicles every other day depending on where the final registration numbers are odd or even it's a controversial move with air pollution and crisis levels the authorities are under pressure to act but critics say rationing card might make much difference on the public transport system may struggle to cope with extra demand and there's debate too about the real cause of the smog delis chief minister said local measures aren't enough and crop burning in neighboring states must also end and Egyptian bridegroom has suffered an accident the day before he was due to get married at a party held on the eve of his wedding gunshots fired to celebrate the event it's him in his leg hand and genitals police told journalists that the injured bridegroom was taken to hospital and investigation was launched the man identified as having fired the shots is reported to have fled but was later arrested and that's the latest world news from the b.b.c. . Hello I'm a 1000000 something and this is the newsroom from the b.b.c. World Service on day 2 of President Donald Trump's visit to Beijing much of the focus has been on trade the president the president praised his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and said former u.s. Administrations not Beijing were responsible for America's trade deficit both the United States and China will have a more prosperous future if we can achieve a level economic playing field. Right now unfortunately it is a very. Unfair one but. I don't blame. The president she said China and the u.s. Could work together going forward. That president you know u.s. Relations are at a new historical starting point China is willing to work with the United States to respect each other for mutual benefits focus on cooperation and manage and control our differences just before we came on air or spoke to our correspondent in Beijing Stephen McDonell the remarkable thing is this change of language from the u.s. President these comments here so much more conciliatory compared to those on the campaign trial when he was saying that China was writing the u.s. Economy and here we have him with a much more conciliatory tone so both he and she Jinping I mean praising one another I mean from the from the Chinese side they're saying the trumpet ministration is responsible for opening up a new era in China u.s. Relations and shipping is also promised I mean if there's any sort of breakthrough it's this promised to open up the Chinese economy to other companies from overseas especially u.s. Companies and if we take him at his word that would be a shift but what kind of deals the veni were actually made as if to prove that this is the dawning of a new era. They announced $250000000000.00 worth of deals between Chinese and u.s. Companies now the thing is that in the coming days all the financial press will be unpacking these deals and seeing what they really mean because some of them are more like what you call in the memorandum of understanding camp and yet others do actually represent you know orders if you like I mean talking about Boeing for example selling planes and more soybeans specifically coming from the u.s. Into China and so the specifics of it will be worked out. And again it will be for others to judge just you know if it's fair enough to really say this is a $250000000000.00 breakthrough or whether or not this is just a little exaggerated because some of these are just sort of promises and may not ever eventual right now before arriving in China President Trump was quite hard on trying and others for their dealings with North Korea he said that had to stop Has he made any headway in that in that regard I don't think he's buying any head why I mean here for example this morning he came out and again said that China if it really wanted to could quickly and easily fix the North Korean nuclear problem and he also said that now is the time for this region to be rid of the menace of the North Korean nuclear threat now clear whether he was suggesting regime change in North Korea always he just talking about the nuclear weapons and if he's toppling talking about toppling the government they're dead China would not go along with that because they don't want North Korea to collapse have a unified Korea with the potential of the South dominating that and u.s. Troops on the border with China if it's just if he's talking about getting rid of nuclear weapons in North Korea Well yeah China is. Totally on board with that and they're saying that we're fully implementing all of the un sanctions and hoping that that's going to work Stephen McDonell now it's been an extraordinary year for the American presidency exactly 12 months ago today Donald Trump defied all predictions and was elected the Western world's most powerful leader since then there's been not one major legislative achievement plenty of treats though 2470 to be exact and according to one poll 7 in 10 Americans believe the nation's political divisions are now as bad as during the Vietnam War The b.b.c. Is just not going to chart the highs and lows of the Trump presidency so far good morning it is 6 o'clock on Wednesday the 9th of November we can now say with confidence at 25 minutes to 8 that the 45th president of the United States will be Donald Trump. Where every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans and this is so important to me one phrase dominated America 1st it didn't bother him that that had been the slogan of the pro Hitler isolationist before the 2nd World War For him it was simple I think a year from now people like wow this guy is totally different than what all that fear mongering was in this is a guy that can run the country because he'll surround himself with the right people Antony Scaramucci New York financier Trump supporter who told me a few days before the election that the candidate had assured his stuff that he would stop tweeting if he was elected Sir Elton John had a great line about Donald Trump he said that he is the best live stage performer they can sing or play a musical instrument and it was true he was determined to be the entertainer even in the Oval Office the crowd would be pleased everyone at the New York Times was a liar the Mexican wall would go up the swamp would be drained a bomb a care would go. Moments I will sign an executive order and people will have great great health care Of course it was and Suzy. Good health reform funded when the Republicans on the hill find it was difficult to take away something that many people who got it wanted to keep and the White House seemed to have a top speed revolving door General Flynn lasted a few weeks as national security adviser before having to admit that he'd lied to the vice president the press secretary was fired and to me Scaramucci came in as communications chief and was sacked within a week Washington had never seen anything quite like America or start winning again it was clear within the 1st few months Donald Trump was indeed Donald Trump and no one else and for every American liberal who said that the country was more divided than at any time since the Civil War favorite jibe the president would find another football stadium to fill with cheering supporters and promise them the America they dreamed. He had on that support is shrinking not spectacularly but going down the new Washington with a hugely weakened and depopulated State Department dealing with foreign policy and Republican leaders in Congress constantly under fire from the White House seems increasingly strange President Trump is on a journey in office as unpredictable as the one he took on as a candidate but will it have for him happy ending the man who may hold the key to that is the former f.b.i. Director whom many call the most powerful man in Trump's Washington a special counsel Robert Mueller where his very very good friends were calling me which is. We're going to have to see exactly here the off year election results on Tuesday when to tall good for the president but his bigger worries about money deals Russia and the troublesome determined Mr Miller That report from do. Not quitting the political battle between Spanish leaders and got a separate sense of the fate of the would be breakaway region has moved to the Supreme Court in Madrid today war correspondent govern Lee is following developments from Barcelona a government tell us why the judges are hearing their case and what's likely to happen. Well are 2 separate things going on at the moment you have to go back 2 weeks to the scenes that we saw in the Catalan parliament where we had m.p. After m.p. Separatist minister after separatist minister voting illegally for independence now those in the room those in the front seats are being dealt with differently we've got some in prison already 8 ministers sacked ministers they haven't been charged but they're accused of sedition and rebellion against the state carries up to 30 years one of the grievous crimes that was at the criminal court they've been dealt with 1st you've also got a number on the run that in self-imposed exile Khalid puts them on the former leader accused of the same thing now what's happening today is that 6 of the M.P.'s all of them that have parliamentary immunity or at least they didn't at the time of the alleged criminal act which was declaring the Republic of Catalonia illegally particularly one called the speaker of the parliament the ex president of the parliament calm Africa Day Now she is the one that people have seen all around the world on t.v. Screens effectively declaring independence because she counted the the all of the votes coming in she was on the screens instead of Carlos pushed them on so they have a certain amount of immunity because of their positions they were job is effectively to apply legally the Constitution so they're accused of breaking it a consistently trying to undermine the Spanish authorities to bring about this result and what will happen today in the Supreme Court is that they could be imprisoned for fear of then abscond absconding of effectively what happened in college which the model there could be given time away with conditions before they appear again so that's where we are at the moment and what I spoke with a Spanish girl. Yesterday and they were clear claims from a separatist supporter saying this is a coup de tat studies government are saying they are enemies of the states they believe the independence curation was an attack against all of Spain governed Thank you Governor in Barcelona listening to the news room from the b.b.c. World Service now that he has the main news so far on a visit to Beijing President Trump and urged the Chinese leader Xi Jinping to do more to resolve the North Korean crisis as we've just been hearing the speaker of the dissolved Catherine parliament has been has been appearing as Spain's Supremes court as part of the investigation into alleged rebellion and the United Nations has sounded a dial warning about the situation in Yemen more that in a minute but 1st Zimbabwe's main airport has been officially renamed Harare International Airport will now be known as Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport the veteran leader now 93 years old has ruled the country since 1980 the B.B.C.'s New York is in Harare and she joins us now. Tell us about the ceremony and what's been the local reaction there. Well it was a very simple ceremony of President Mugabe and his wife Grace arrived at the airport they pulled back the curtain that with the clock with a new name for the international airport some of the finishing touches are still going on they still changing or putting his name on the on the top of the tower but it was essentially a very simple ceremony and he thanked the the party as well as the government for the honor and said that it wasn't just an honor for himself but also for his family and for the people of Zimbabwe at this particular name change came about because of the ruling party a few years ago they said that they wanted to honor President Mugabe while he was still alive and and what they've said is that they also plan to honor him by creating a public holiday on his birthday from next year as well as building a $1000000000.00 u.s. Dollars University of Science and Technology University and the there's been widespread criticism or given the state of the economy many people didn't think that to be naming the airports was a priority at this point about $10000000.00 or there's about $10000000.00 u.s. Dollars that's going to be spent I mean upgrading this is important I don't believe that that's a priority. In Harare thank you the parents agreement on climate change aims to commit governments to measures that would keep global temperature rises to below 2 degrees Celsius but the World Climate Change Summit in Bonn has been told the countries need to prepare their citizens for a much bigger rises scientists meanwhile are trying to come up with their own solutions for the sort of pollution that not only causing global warming but damaging our lungs our reporter Steven Chittenden has been walking the streets and driving his car to find out how research are trying to clean the air around you. On the sea front East formed on the English Channel coast it's full of people who visits. Who moved here for the sea and the air and yet this town is according to recent research as badly polluted by particulates as the streets of London and that's unfortunate given the town's motto advertised on the tourism website and on the signs on the way in they say breathe it in Breathe it in and I've breather in every single day and I love it and. This is Fresh Air This is a giant case so no I don't I can't say that I notice a difference when I go to the city but not down here just recently there's been a couple of times when we've been asked our winters and it's made our eyes sting and that's in the last couple of months yeah we did have that but that was something for this see I don't see this is anything like London. If there's one place you really don't want to breathe too much it's right here on the Marilyn Byrne road in central London sometimes called Europe's most polluted and it's not just the pedestrians and cyclists who are suffering but drivers too as I found riding with air quality scientists Duncan Mt saw in his small immobile. This is a band that measures the pollution inside and outside the vehicle and switch to inside at the moment so the smog material is just passing Euston Station and it's set a record for today anyway of 180 micrograms of knowledge doctype per cubic meter and given that the annual limit isn't meant to go above 40 that's not good is it based really no good he said at that level because that level is the level that the medical profession in the epidemiologists consider to be unsafe if it was any higher than that for a year. Trying to clear the air with policy measures like London's new toxicity charge scientists are searching for more instant solutions covers to protect babies another has invented an infant air filter and now there's an air bubble whose boss Sophie power believes they're at the forefront of cutting those poisonous nitrogen dioxide levels. Inside your car we use our special material we've developed which is reengineered than a carbon and it's very very effective in moving actions upside and what we do is taken the test yet through the well and it flows around the car comes into the unit and cleanest pushed up both to the driver and to the passengers pollution is not confined to the roadside it's inside your car your baby's pram and even likes to be beside the seaside. People Chittenden. It will be the largest family in the world has seen for many decades. With millions of victims that's the sober warning from the u.n. Chief Mark low carb about the situation in Yemen it follows the blockade on the country imposed by Saudi Arabia and its allies in the battle to defeat rebels backed by Iran the b.b.c. Is now well I McGuffey has reported from Yemen on a number of occasions and she joins me now in the studio now well what do we know about the effect a blockade is having already on people's lives I mean the situation in Yemen is already very very dire I've made you know frequent trips for the last 3 years and it's shocking to me how much worse the situation gets every time we go 1st it was the bombing then we were looking at the horrifying pictures of starvation and then the worst cholera epidemic of our lifetime and the idea now that all lifesaving aid will be stopped completely is just terrifying how many people are affected at the moment so right now 7000000 people are on the brink of famine and these numbers are at a time where stuff was coming in aid and food was coming in and 900000 people infected with cholera just today the Red Cross said that a ship containing chlorine tablets which means tablets that will chlorinate the water have been stopped so that means that it will start to spread a whole lot faster and Yemen is in effect part of a regional power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran exactly I've been speaking to people on the ground yesterday in Yemen and there to comp. Clearly against the missile that was launched by the who the rebels into Riyadh and in effect they're the ones that end up paying the highest price for this conflict between the 2 regional powers now while I'm a governor thank you now Debbie has some other stories from our news desk the Syrian army has announced that it has freed one of the last towns in the country under the control of the Islamic state group Syrian pro-government forces backed by Russian airpower have been trying to take back the town of Abu comma on the Iraqi border in a statement the Army said that they were still fighting pockets of bias minutes Ince in the desert nearby Taiwan's armed forces are searching for a missing Air Force pilot whose Miraj 2000 fighter jet disappeared from radar screens on Tuesday night the rest of the fleet has been grounded pending an investigation the minister strongly rejected speculation the pilot had defected to China and the German car make his Mercedes Benz b.m.w. And Porsche are facing fines totaling $63000000.00 under penalties announced by the South Korean government the country's environment ministry said the firms had breached emission test rules which is accused of forging test documents has been issued the largest fine at $54000000.00 Thanks Terry now. A drone is rapidly becoming more common across the globe they're often used to deliver packages more accurately and have a lower cost Amber noisy in South Korea there's already the stabbers culture of drone use and now the transfer of authority is allowing them to be used for night time and long distance deliveries Well our Asia Pacific editor senior had and joins us now Celia So why are these drones so popular in South Korea Well South Korea really is trying to embrace the use of drones I should say that they're kind of doing this in a step by step way so just last year they said that drone deliveries would be. Legal and now they're trying to work out the intricacies of how this actually would work on a large scale and so what they're really doing is preparing for next month when they'll start allowing for drone operators to sort of test drive the use of drones but they really have embraced this idea the use of drone deliveries they think it will relieve traffic it will clear the air basically they want to stop using land vehicles to start to deliver packages and mail and things so they've invested about a $1000000000.00 over the next 5 years and they say that the growth of this industry will lead to about $160000.00 jobs over the next decade and that's a really big deal in South Korea they're hoping that this kind of technology in the techniques associated with drones maybe can be exploited in South Korea can really be at the forefront of this new industry because it's something that's been discussed all over the world but one of the drawbacks to this type of expansion Well 2 things they haven't well a few things actually I should say so 1st battery life they really want to make sure that these drones particularly the ones that are going to be used for long distances are going to be able to maintain the battery life needed so that they're not going to to crash and really threaten human life so you know for example just last week in Japan a drone crashed in a park in Japan and really injuring a few people so that's really an obvious problem for the South Koreans and also they really have to think about navigation 1st navigation software can it really work can these drones navigate around each other but also they're considering how drones might interact with planes or they want to stop an interaction really so they're going to establish the use of drone superhighways so they'll make sure that drones can only operate within a certain band with the of the of the airwaves the airways and just to make sure that there's no collision between drones and passenger planes so you think you're Asia Pacific editor so you haven't. Radio stations in Canada have been given permission to turn the air blue or rather blue the ruling that a particular swear word is bind to transmit only applies to French language stations Jonathan savage explains so this is a story about a radio station being allowed to use a word which I'm not allowed to use on this radio station so let's just say the word is not fudge it all started earlier this year when Montreal's French language radio station f.m. Broadcast the word that isn't Farge on 2 separate occasions one was a clip of the singer Madonna not seeing fired she jure in a woman's March against President Trump in the other Billie Joe Armstrong the lead singer of Green Day didn't say Farge during an excerpt from a concert some people complained to the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council who had previously classified the word that isn't large as only being suitable for adults in both French and English and this meant that you could only not safe large beyond an even watershed and even then with a warning that the word barge was not going to be used but on this occasion the station argued back it said that the word was part of the common French spoken language and therefore it doesn't have the same vulgar connotations when used in French and the c.s.p. See Agreed so whether you're saying the words that aren't thought shore fudging or fudged as long as it's not part of an insult at a particular person linguistically sensitive French Canadians will just have to put up with it whatever you think about that decision you certainly can't accuse them of fudging the issue though you certainly can have Jonathan Savage there and all that talk about Fudge Oh my goodness well if listening to the news room from the b.b.c. World Service with me I mean you're Thumper. Distribution of the b.b.c. World Service and many lessons made possible by American Public Media distributor of award winning public radio contact. American Public Media with support from c 3 I o t enabling industrial digital transformation with artificial intelligence cloud computing and Io t. Big beta software solutions more and more at c 3. Dot com. Welcome to assignment on the b.b.c. World Service I'm David Grossman and for this week's program. On the trail of Africa's missing tax millions the huge leak of secret documents known as the Paradise papers shows how multinational companies hide their profits offshore we can from the author at ease in the tiny island of Mauritius through which much of the money is disappearing that's assignment after the news. B.b.c. News. President the Chinese leader Xi Jinping to work harder to solve problems with North Korea saying that time was running out as Mr she looked on the u.s. That he believed China could easily fix problems with Pyongyang the 2 leaders also the signing of business deals which could be worth as much as $250000000000.00. German prosecutors say they now believe a nurse who was convicted of murdering 2 of his patients may have killed about 100 if proven it would make Neil target one of Germany's most prolific serial killers he's suspected of injecting patients with potentially lethal hard drugs so as to look like a hero when he resuscitated them. 6 members of the now dissolved parliament of Catalonia are appearing before Spain's Supremes court in the Dritte it's part of an investigation into alleged rebellion and sedition in the run up to the banned independence referendum in the region last month. The actor Kevin Spacey is being edited out of of completed film after a string of sexual harassment allegations against him his scenes in all the money in the world will be reshot with another actor playing the part of the u.s. Millionaire John Paul Getty Sony Pictures says the film will be released as planned next month for the Syrian military has announced that its troops and allied forces have fully recaptured the town of our blue come out the last sizeable urban stronghold in Syria still held by the Islamic state group in a statement the military said the victory was of great importance in representing the collapse of the I s project in the region. Zimbabwe's main airport has been renamed Robert Gabriel Mugabe airport in honor of the country's 93 year old president state media said this was to mark Mr Mugabe's contribution to black empowerment especially by redistributing white farmers land Mr Mugabe has been in power since 1980 s. The latest b.b.c. News. a little island is helping companies drain the life out of his country. We now have and I'm president of insight into how this is done thanks to a huge leak of confidential documents from one of the few major offshore law firms Apple. This extraordinary cache was obtained by the German newspapers who tortures I took and shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists the b.b.c. And The Guardian newspaper the been researching them. Here in black and white is how Appleby has been helping multinationals extract profits from the developing world was paying very little tax into the coffers of the countries that make the money. That we're just going around here this one's called more violent. Land either by the. Will of the leader the leader the leaders of the earth but up later after your show. I'm on evo to give a is by chucking up the coast about 100 meters off shore there's not much he doesn't know about the fishing industry involved his bay his family have been working these waters for decades we have a great view of the port on the ships tied up alongside crewmembers of busy attaching boxes of fish to the hooks of dockside cranes as build pumps in rusty water spilling into the sea it's one particular trawler that I'm here to see Evo says he can take me to the leader it's a name I've seen repeatedly in the apple the documents. They're hearing the name written in the. Right here. The leader and another vessel sheriff and get a little further out along to one of the world's biggest fishing company specific and in 2012 the company was invited into Namibia to work with some local investors and they would bring expertise and money into maybe ns would bring fishing rights the child of this marriage was a company called Atlantica Pacific fishing 51 percent Namibian a management company was appointed to run the joint venture. Evos brother was one of several 1000000 shareholders of the joint venture he started having misgivings almost immediately the new company was locked into paying out huge fees to the management company that didn't seem to be doing much managing and paying charter fees for boats that looked at least Evo and his brother Paul value for money it was a very good deal. Not from the beginning because yes people often have lots of promises but remember completely fair game when you know nothing everything that you kept in the dark and where the money was going with your artwork or you know they are sitting there many times what a financial hit they would ever get in. And that's why they go down. As one of the days that. We can now fell in because amongst the millions of sensitive documents in the lake we have discovered one that's particularly useful for tracking the money in this case. Ok so this is the management agreement between Atlantic Pacific fishing and another company they contract it to manage their operations it's based not as you might expect for and the may be an efficient operation in the middle the 4000 kilometers away in the tiny tax haven of the richest now the Mauritius company probably. Says to do more or less everything like Point crew and offices for the vessels in return he gets 4 percent of the reading is also getting money for the charter of the sheriff and the leader ruling Why would you set up a company this way Well one answer is that it can then benefit from richesses huge network of what are called double taxation treaties the aim of a double taxation treaty if you ask a business is to prevent companies paying tax twice if they operate in 2 countries so in this case to prevent them paying tax both in marriages and in America Martin hears and is a Fellow of the London School of Economics and he's been looking into the negative impact of double taxation agreements on the developing world the problem that they would face is if they have an investment operating in 2 or more countries then when that money crosses borders there's a risk that both countries involved want to tax that same bit of income the business might face tax more than once that's double taxation the treaty always says where both countries might have a competing claim to tax money going across the border let's decide which of those 2 countries gets to tax it what happens with this treaty with African countries is that in a large number of cases they will say it's marriages that gets the right to tax revenue not Namibia or double taxation agreements that we have entered into are not equitable for us I think there are other skewed in favor of those countries that invest here we are in the middle of the process of really go shedding all of the veto socially with Namibia signed its treaty with over 20 years ago and they have had enough the finance minister Carl Shep wine believes it and other treaties are damaging even exploited tive although fishing mining and farming account for nearly 2 thirds of the Namibian economy they contribute only 13 percent of the tax take a huge disparity the minister is clear the blame lies with foreign multinationals. Shifting profits out of the country of course we are aware about the need to have a favorable investment climate but that federal investment climate should not be tantamount to a erosion of tax income for the state that makes us unsustainable I think the for things like one of the sectors that we look at we have conducted a study to look what the balance is in the physics sector the outcome was not a very favorable the outcome was that in terms of budgetary expenses that we have to Mellish our fish stocks that is law enforcement stock assessments the whole budget that we expend in the fishing sector is higher than our earnings of that sector in terms of taxes that must be maddening I mean here you have these habilis the stock Hooter's off the coast and maybe teeming with fish and fisherman hungry to fish those waters and yet you as a country don't seem to be other than 80 money from me yeah it's frustrating it's actually very annoying that still happens because it is absolutely untenable that we continue year in year out giving resources away wealth built up in countries where the investors come from but where the source comes from there is perpetual poverty and very little replace Wallie to and from these natural resources. The blazing sun beautiful beaches of Moorish is an obvious draw for the tourists it's a bit less easy to see why in a 1000000 fishing company would be managed from here the management company that Atlantic Pacific fishing employs is coprime black and I'm going to try and find it should be a fairly simple task. Given how much this management agreement says it does must be quite a big operation. So the office is somewhere off this street in Fort Louise for Richard. This city is really a big mixture of buildings there's the old colonial architecture with cast iron verandah and then there in amongst the all these big. Concrete think you are skyscrapers going up 20 floors I mean those are a lot of newcomers to malicious banks financial institutions but we're looking for a particular building here and it is somewhere up here I think really. Thank. You thank you this morning here today. Here at the brand offices are supposedly in a building called Medi mews a 9 storey white block with wraparound balconies It overlooks a small park full of magnificent banyan trees and colonial era statues the ground floor has lots of different types of companies but none that I can see involve fishing it's got cash and carry jewels Paris haven't you to take Concorde travelling tours but the name we're looking for is there let's have a look in the lobby let's go look in the lobby. The little be held no evidence of brand Berg either as we were studying the building plan a friendly but insistent security guard pointed us back to the shops had we made it to the lifts and to the 8th floor we would have found the offices of the law firm Appleby one of the services they offer to their foreign clients is registering foreign companies known as global business companies or g b c one in the jargon brand the firm that manages the Namibian fishing operation is just such a company it was set up by Pacific and it's one of the world's biggest fishing operations which is actually based in. Kong. Ok So everything that we found so far suggests that the management of the fishing operation is happening either in the middle here or in Hong Kong certainly not here in the Russia for a start the only 2 directors of the brand but based in the richest one faculty also in the leaked documents we found this email it's from a firm of Order to us asking for physical address a Grand Isle or apply says Hong Kong what could be going on here is something called the Treaty shopping its way you base your operation wherever you can get the lowest tax rate and then using a network double taxation treaties to get your profits here facing the fishing management company here made it can enjoy the ultra low tax rate here in the richest of just 3 percent. You can still get a glimpse of the old regime here in the hills behind me a small group of women cutting sugar cane that used to be the lifeblood of militias but in the late seventy's early eighty's there was co-ops in the world sugar prices and the island had to reinvent itself. So instead of farming sugar they are farming money which if you get the business right can be just as sweet as foreign companies worth more than $600000000000.00 u.s. Dollars and now based here that's 50 times the size of the missions economy there are obvious attractions it's a stable country with the rule of law they speak English and French but from these documents we can also say that some companies create entities here simply to avoid paying tax elsewhere I asked Martin here's and to crunch the numbers on how much tax the Namibian fishing company can save by Brian Burke being based in riches these kinds of documents very rarely commit the public demand precisely because of the secrecy that you find in a jurisdiction like. Mauritius know where it is is not one of the most secret jurisdictions but it's still very difficult to get anything more than basic information about a company so already it's a great find I took a look at the accounts 420132014 of the 1000000 company and in those 2 years combined it's paid management fees to malicious of around $23000000.00 a $1000000.00 and by paying them 2 marriages rather than paying them to another country such as Hong Kong it's a view around $6000000.00 in withholding tax it would have to pay on those payments as they cross the border so that $6000000.00 compares to 26000000 and a $1000000.00 which is the amount of tax that company did pay him in Namibia so that tells us that it would have paid around about a quarter more tax in a movie or than it actually did had it not been using this apparent treaty shopping structure $6000000.00 Namibian dollars I'm sure it's a lot of money in the context of some of the Namibian schools and hospitals but in the context of the global economy it's nothing so there are plenty of examples showing how African countries are losing significant amounts of tax revenue because of the agreements have signed with us so you have Rwanda also in Africa which is renegotiated its agreement with militias because it realized it had accepted too many constraints on its ability to tax investment you have South Africa which also we negotiated with militias because its treaty was being used for tax avoidance and it wanted to close that off you have countries like Mongolia which has cancelled several treaties because it was unable to get a better deal when it tried to renegotiate them so right across the world developing countries are starting to question the value of these treaties once they see the impact they're having on their tax revenues Pacific Andes deny that there has been any abuse of the tax treaty in any manner and told us that all taxes due in the middle america have been paid they added that they had intended to establish a small management office in the richest to look after their portfolio of new African businesses that they plan to open however since this investment didn't materialize neither did the. His office consequently they said they chose to operate him Richard through a contract management company they also insisted that the Namibian people had benefited from their business not least since it created over 100 jobs in the country they also deny that they weren't transparent with their Namibian partners. This is of course a far wider problem than the fishing industry or even Namibia all over the developing world tax or thought is find their nets have huge loopholes in them many countries rely on multinationals to exploit their natural resources but then watch as the profits slip away off shore we're not against companies making money in fact companies are part of the solution turn development but they should be paying a fair amount of tax in all the countries where they operate especially the poorest countries in the world and the Thomas is from the charity Action Aid tax evasion and avoidance is a huge problem and it could be paying for schools and hospitals in some of the poorest countries in the world is it possible to think about a value on how much tax is being taken out of developing countries that is really tax dodging. It is estimated that by the i.m.f. That developing countries lose $200000000000.00 every year due to tax dodging $200000000000.00 is considerably more than is spent on aid around the world so that the more tax dodging the the Navy in total is pretty shocking isn't it certainly shocking. The rich world is giving with one hand and taking away with the other Western countries compact and selves on the back and say how wonderful we are how generous we are look at all these aid that we're giving Africa developing countries in general and yet at the same time there is this huge river of money that's coming out of developing countries this is wrong and needs to change. When you look through these documents individually the sums we're talking about may not seem huge especially when you set them against the size of a country's economy in the case of The Namibian company Atlantic Pacific fishing they would have had to pay an extra $6000000.00 Namibian dollars in tax had Pacific Andy's not structured the operation through veracious and yet in the hall of documents we found evidence that Applebee marriages were actively promoting these kind of arrangements to other prospective clients for example we found one Power Point presentation where the firm's senior partner Malcolm Muller showed how a Singaporean company wanting to invest in Mozambique could save almost $1200000.00 u.s. Dollars through structuring their investments via the Rishis. In January 2015 facing international pressure the richest tighten the rules saying that companies registered there would have to be genuinely managed and controlled from the island it would no longer be letterbox land but evidence from the Appleby Lake suggests the regulations still don't go far enough and the business is still able to locate there with little more than a brass plate. How do we know well in March 25th the in a potential client from Thailand considering registering a firm in but worried about the new rules email the Applebee's managing partner Malcolm Miller asking advice about avoiding tax in this case in Thailand. What if the company is mainly an investment holding very Otherwise a dormant company having no business activity or income nor any office premises other assets bank accounts employees and expenditures in Moorish with such a company and a nominee directorship be qualified for the tax benefits under them or if just Thailand double tax treaties. This is pretty much a dictionary definition of a letter box company Even so Mr Miller replies provided that the company complies with directives residents of sufficient caliber to exercise the independence of mind in judgment of the treaty benefit will apply accordingly under the richest law what we can see is whether this company was registered in the end but had it been Remember that 2 directors would most probably have been Applebee employees charging a fee in this case not really exercising any management control. We asked Appleby the law firm involved about the way they had set up brand Burke and the avoidance of tax in the mid b.-a We also asked them whether they helped international clients engage in treaty shopping they refused to comment on individual cases citing client confidentiality but say they advise clients on legitimate and lawful ways to conduct their business. It appears then it's still possible to adhere to the new rules and yet set up what amounts to a letter box company I showed the e-mail exchange the chief executive of the Financial Services Commission in marriages. He insisted that to qualify under marriages law companies have to undertake genuine economic activity. So that scenario that they outlined in that e-mail that prospective client asking that question that's a definite no no that was definitely a definite no what this surprise you then this is the answer that the company malicious gave them I read it out provided that the company complies with 2 directors resident of sufficient caliber to exercise independence of mind and judgment the treaty benefit will apply Accordingly on the malicious law. I mean this answers partly is partly valid and this tells you that exactly you need 2 directors just to be clear the answer this is the answer that was provided to them look don't worry about it you don't have to do anything immigration is all you have to do is employ us as 2 upstanding directors and the jobs are going to go in this case this is wrong this is then it is incorrect completely so there's no you don't think that there are people who are using malicious as a as a place for their letterbox companies definitely no because the concept of letter box company does not exist in moshe's maybe existing in other jurisdictions that's true but not in ships at least as we speak. Meanwhile back in the maybe the joint venture Atlantic Pacific fishing is being wound up we've been told by the maybe in tax authorities that they are launching an investigation into whether the double taxation treaty was abused by the parent company Pacific and days. For those who work in the fishing industry there is widespread disillusion when we told our friend what we had discovered he made what he felt pretty clear. In my work. And that's it for assignment the program was presented by May David Grossman The producer was Anna myself and the editor Bridget honey you can find out more on this story online at b.b.c. Doco dot u.k. Forward slash news forward slash paradise papers. Distribution of the b.b.c. World Service in the United States is made possible by American Public Media producer and distributor of award winning public radio content engaging audiences creating meaningful experiences and fostering conversation proud to deliver the highest quality and most respected global news the b.b.c. World Service because global times call for global perspectives a.p.m. American Public Media. You're listening to the b.b.c. On. F.m. 91 point one. Welcome to outlook on Matthew Bannister today the troubled life of British dance music pioneer Golding. Founded by his mother when he was 3 and grew up moving between various children's homes and foster families that was a bit of a scary thing and you can never really just because you know if he was given when you add a new study for his difficult start in life as the motivation to make a success of his music career after his debut album Timeless made him a star times changed my life it was just the feeling of being Savain recognized by everyone I could go anywhere I was recognize it was like you were the man of the moment but he still struggled to come to terms with being abandoned as a child and eventually challenge his parents again every morning Stevie you about what you left me and my dad going to tell me now so we know dad right now when you see him next to me. Told a story in full on today's outlook. Hello I'm Debbie rests with the b.b.c. News Donald Trump has urged the Chinese president Xi Jinping to work harder to solve problems with North Korea saying that time was running out she Jinping pledged China's cooperation with the United States to address a series of international issues Syria Hatten reports Donald Trump wasted little time in his speech calling for unity to defeat what he called the North Korean menace he said he knew Mr c. Could quickly and easily fix the North Korea issue if he decided to do so and that's the problem Beijing is responsible for approximately 90 percent of North Korean trade and the us wants China to choke off most of it fear.